Glen Arbor Arts Center’s (GAAC) Executive Director Sarah Kime is parting ways with the organization after six years, but her passion for the work that she does shows in the growth of the nonprofit during her tenure.
In addition to last week’s news of Kime’s departure, incoming board president Jeff Gietzen shared in his message to members that he will be reengaging in the position once again. Gietzen extended his appreciation to Pam Lysaght who completed her two-year commitment as board president as well.
Kime has contributed to GAAC in many ways, including increasing the number and diversity of classes and programs, increased fundraising revenue through contributions, grants, membership and Curator Circle giving. Not only has Kime helped build and support the staff in their growth, she has also developed the Manitou Musician-in-residence program and creative wellness retreats. Other meaningful regional community relationships Kime established include with the Dennos Museum, Interlochen Public Radio, Pine Street Studios/Traverse City Dance Project, Glen Lake Community School and with the Leelanau School.
“I leave with a sense of both gratitude and accomplishment. I am so grateful for everyone’s artistry, instruction, performance, volunteering, contributions, and specifically the professionalism of my team,” Kime said. “This was the first executive director position that I had in my nonprofit career of 12 years, so I’m certainly grateful for this opportunity that I was able to serve the community I credit for transforming my professional life.”
Kime will wrap up her last day at GAAC on March 15 to move on and work as director of advancement for North Carolina Outward Bound School. In her new role, she will be responsible for all the fundraising, marketing, and communications for the organization, similar to much of the work she did with GAAC.
“When I came on because of my fundraising background, we started really aggressively writing grants. I expanded the membership and we went from 300 to 500 members, and really just making sure that we had all this revenue so we could do more cool stuff,” she said. “That was really a big goal of mine to standardize and grow the fundraising program for the organization so it could fund these cool creative opportunities.”
When Kime first started in her position at GAAC six years ago, she said the organization was smaller, noting that about 90% of the program was volunteer-led. Kime said over those years, they contracted an education manager, created an administrative position, and grew classes from 30 to 90 people.
“We’re celebrating our 41st year providing creative opportunities for this region. When I took over, I just had this sense of opportunity and growth that the community was hungry for,” she said. “My job was to standardize the operational day to day and really curate the performance reviews and goals and really grow and look at each program we’re offering and analyze to see if there was an opportunity for growth and how we could standardize it. That led to a huge change.”
In her second year working at GAAC, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down businesses and organizations, but Kime said they chose to pivot instead of closing their doors. She said during this time she helped with moving all of their class offerings, exhibits, and other materials online to increase access for community members. They also started “Creativity Q+A,” which is the only free online library of conversations between the GAAC gallery manager and area artists where the audience can read from start to finish how creatives began their careers, what motivates them, and how the individual got to this place.
“Then we transitioned out of COVID into what it is now,” she said. “We weren’t year round when I started, it was still seasonal, so a big accomplishment for me these last six years is having offerings from January to December.”
Kime said the GAAC board will lead the search and interview process for the next executive director, with more details to come in the next couple of weeks. Scott Bauma, GAAC operations manager, has been with the organization for over 10 years, and will step in as interim director until the position is filled.
